If you’re reading this in August, you’re probably an NBA junkie. Just like us. Even now, there are so many great NBA-related stories being told we at PBT can’t get to them all in our regular posts, so we’re passing a few along in a bullet point format. Enjoy.

• I’ll admit my bias up front — I love Baron Davis. Ask me “who are your five favorite players to watch all time” and Davis makes my list. When he is healthy and in a groove, there is simply nobody like him with a great game IQ and flair. He wrote a brutally honest piece for NBA.com about his story since he had to be carried off the court at MSG in 2012, and it is a must read.

Once I got hurt and carried off that court in 2012 in Madison Square Garden, the Mecca and grand stage of basketball, I told myself it was over. Just forget you ever played and don’t bring it up. If anybody tries to remind you how much you love it, just brush it off as something that you were good at a long time ago. Give yourself amnesia. Tell yourself you hate playing the game and it will be easier to move on.

My grandmother always told me to have something to fall back on. “You’re not going to be able to play forever. You’re a good basketball player, but you are also good at other things. You could get hurt the way you play out there, like your life depended on it.”

In the summer of 2014, Markieff Morris took what he saw as a little less than market value — he has four years, $32 million left on his deal — to make sure his twin brother Marcus got paid and they could play together in Phoenix. Markieff then had a season that saw him regress — he was scoring more per game but being less efficient, all the while clashing with the Suns’ coaching staff. Also, he may also now be in some serious legal trouble for an assault.

In the summer of 2015, trying to clear out some cap space in case LaMarcus Aldridge chose them, the Suns traded Marcus to the Pistons. Markieff (the better of the two brothers) is pissed — he said, “I am not going to be there.” As in “trade me.” He’s got preferred trade destinations.

There is no surprise that Markieff Morris is missing from that list, given his “Keef beef” with the franchise. His trade request fell on deaf ears….

The Suns need and want Morris. They would not stand much of a chance to replace him by trade. They would have no chance to replace him by free agency. They do not have an adequate existing roster option.

Reasonably, hard feelings should subside by the time he must report to Phoenix on Sept. 28. However, he was steaming six weeks after the trade when he went public to the Philadelphia Inquirer this month. Another six weeks might not help but being around his teammate friends again and meeting a respected frontcourt partner such as Chandler should help him recommit, even if Morris returns to being the quieter person he was before Marcus joined Phoenix.

Morris has said he will be professional and do what he has to, but will not go the extra mile for the team. Like, show up early for workouts. The Suns are betting on that softening over time. Morris is expected to be the Suns starting power forward, and if he doesn’t show up to camp the Suns don’t have to pay him.

The problem for the Suns is even if they wanted to trade him right now, they have zero leverage. Everyone in the league knows he wants out, and offers will be lowball. Even if they were considering a trade, they couldn’t say it. But Morris is 25, on a reasonable contract and two seasons ago was mentioned as a potential Sixth Man of the Year — those are not the kind of guys you move.

If the Suns starts to look like a playoff team in the West — they should be in the mix for the seventh and eighth seed slots — we will see if winning cures all ills. If not, the Suns can still be patient. Bottom line, don’t expect a Morris move in the short term.

If you didn’t see the 30 games Ray McCallum played as a starter for the Sacramento Kings to close out last season, I can’t blame you. By the time they got around to hiring George Karl things had gone sideways in the California capital and this team was not headed to the playoffs.

But the second-year point guard looked pretty good. The son of a coach who plays a high IQ game and does a lot of the little things right, he averaged 11.2 points a game as a starter, shot 34 percent from three at that time, and dished out 4.3 assists a night. He’s a solid defender (but not a stopper, as he had been billed). He’s got good handles and uses that skill to weave through a defense to create havoc and open up angles. While his shot and shot selection could still use some work, this is an improving young player entering just his third season who can be a solid part of the point guard rotation on any team.

It was one of the quieter moves of a busy summer, but it was about the most Spurs thing ever. They pick up a solid player making less than $1 million a year for next to nothing. (You can see why the Kings made the move, they have Rajon Rondo and Darren Collison, McCallum would be buried on their bench.)

While they don’t think McCallum will be the defender Cory Joseph is, they see him as someone who can run a team. If Tony Parker suffers injuries again, McCallum could be a key to the season.

McCallum is not Parker — if the French guard suffers an injury again it’s a big blow to the Spurs. And they can’t afford those kinds of setbacks with the quality of teams at the top of the Western Conference.

But mixed with Patty Mills, McCallum will play a significant role for the Spurs getting Parker time on the bench in games, plus nights off. McCallum will step right in and do Spurs-like things, making smart plays and focusing on doing what he does well, not trying to do too much.

I expect McCallum will thrive this season. And we’ll all look back at the McCallum trade and say “it’s the Spurs doing Spurs things again.”

Until then, we will have to go to YouTube to get our fix. Over at NBA.com, they put together a mix tape of the best hustle plays of the 2014-15 season and nothing will make you jones for a game that matters like these kinds of plays.

It’s not a coincidence you see stars like Chris Paul, LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Russell Westbrook in a highlight package like this. But don’t worry, there’s some Matthew Dellavedova, too.